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Southern California Contractors Association |
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By Al Atwood Executive Vice President Emeritus The old saying—“As the twig is bent, so the tree inclines” is certainly true for our association. The first decade 1974-84 saw the foundation laid for the Southern California Contractors Association (SCCA) as many of committees formed to face the issues confronting our contractors then, remain in full force today. For example, SCCA set up several standing committees—Labor, Finance, City, County and State Government, Membership and Programs, Rental Rates, Safety and Transportation. Each of these committees, in one form or another, remains active today as the issues they were created to deal with remain serious issues for the construction industry. Labor Committee Chairman Gene Nicks and I were instructed to contact representatives of the five basic trades (operators, laborers, iron workers, cement masons and carpenters) and request labor coverage with full grievance procedures for our members. This was accomplished with the assistance of C. W. Poss and other members. Charlie is still chairman of the Labor Committee today. SCCA obtained seats on the labor/management trusts and is a leader in labor negotiations in cooperation with other local associations. The Government Committee was first chaired by Walt Griffin with a goal to establish lines of communication with officials of cities, counties, state governments and other political subdivisions like school water districts to make them aware of SCCA and the issues facing our industry. This effort certainly continues to be among our most important. We remain active in improving and upgrading the Green Book and other specification documents, represent our members at contractor meetings with local government agencies and helped found critical special support groups to deal with air and water quality issues. First principles One of the key original principles in founding SCCA was our determination to keep the public contracting open, fair and competitive. We believed then and we believe now that private enterprise offers the public the best quality work at the lowest possible cost—if and only if public projects are put out to bid in the competitive marketplace. We were concerned then with the problems of graft and corruption –of a few big contractors swallowing up public work by making “buddy deals” with public officials—using their political clout to elbow out our members and other worthy contractors. Guess what—the same issues keep resurfacing today with fancier titles like Design-Build or Construction Manager at Risk. We keep fighting for the taxpayer and for better opportunities for our contractor members. Safety supreme The Safety Committee, with Mike Peak as first chair, was concerned with improving the working conditions of our employees and keeping government regulation from agencies such as OSHA advised as to the workability of their regulations. Over the years this committee has continued this mission and with our Safety Awards program, encourages and recognizes the efforts of our members to continuously improve the health and job-safety of our workers. Our membership committee was first chaired by Jay Pilon and included W. E. McKnight, Frank Witherspoon, Arnie Nelson, F. A. Goplen, Don Thompson, Charlie Poss, Roy Silver and Robert Hall as members. Its goals were to recruit new members, establish a regular monthly meeting program and improve our public relations. Why we meet The new association favored regular monthly board and general membership meetings. They knew that meetings held at a location that are approximately the center of the overall membership create interest, attract new members, provide members with an opportunity to hear important industry issues, give everyone an opportunity to socialize in a constructive environment and work to the betterment of SCCA and the industry as a whole. In those early days SCCA’s membership met at Salvatore’s Restaurant in East L. A. with attendance averaging about 70 at each meeting. The total membership of the organization at the end of its first year was 73 contractors and 39 affiliate members. The SCCA offices were originally located at my house in Hawthorne for the first five months, but Virginia put her foot down and we soon moved to 4418 Beverly Blvd., in Los Angeles. In 1984 the SCCA offices moved again to their current location—6055 E. Washington Blvd., Ste 200, at the intersection of I-5 and Washington—near the geographic center of our 12-county trade area. -30-
Jack Saiz, Jr.—President 1979
John J. Clarke—President 1980
Donald Gladden—President 1981
Bill Maness—President 1982
Tim MacDonald—President 1983
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Copyright
©2007 Southern California Contractors Association |
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